Friday, January 18, 2013

The Juice Diaries

I hate
salad. There. I said it. I’m sure I’ve stirred a few gasps of horror based on
this confession. I love the idea of salads, but I can’t get passed the
bitterness of leafy greens. I would always force myself to eat one every once
in a while because I know the veggies are good for you, but I would find myself
overusing dressing (that’s a big no, no!).
I’ve recently been enthralled with health-food related research and
decided to try juicing a couple times a week.
Before I get into my favorite recipes, I want to kind of lay out some of
pros and cons of juicing lifestyle.

Cons:

-When you
juice, you separate the sugars from the fiber in the fruit. The roughage bin on the back of the juicer
will fill up with all of that fiber-goodness.
If you juice that day, make sure you are getting your 25-35 grams of fiber in
other foods, because it won’t be in the juice! Some people opt for using a
blender instead of a juicer so they reap all the benefits of their produce!

-For this
reason, along with others, I also do not recommend an exclusive juice-based
diet.

-It can get a
little pricey in the produce department! (Sam’s club is a blessing!)

-Cleaning the
juicer is a pain! Some juicers may be
better than others, but ours has tiny crevices where all the fibery-pulp likes
to hide.

Pros (yay! The
pros!):

-It’s delicious
and filling!

-Our body is
very smart and “detoxifies” a lot on its own, but let’s face it, we live in a
culture of HIGHLY processed, chemically-enhanced foods (even in unsuspecting
grocery items!), and our precious body could use all the extra help we can give it. “Jesus-foods”, as I like to call them
(plants, plants, plants!), are great at detoxifying a lot of chemicals we
ingest other places.

-The
nutritional benefits are stellar! When we cook veggies, they lose most of the
vitamins and minerals our bodies need, so juicing allows us to JAM PACK all
these nutrients into one delicious glass.

-You can get
your greens without the dreaded salad (and dressing-free, too!)

-You also
digest juice a lot more quickly than if you just ate the fruit or veggie
itself. Your body absorbs the liquid
instead of having to break it down first.

-When you get
all the nutrients from your fruits and veggies, your hair, skin, bones, etc.
will all be in great shape! I’m kind of a hair snob and pregnancy took its toll on my locks-so I drink juice for
vanity!

-When Ri
starts drinking juice, I plan to make it for him instead of buying sugar-filled
juice at the grocery store. I want a healthy, healthy boy!

There are
plenty more pros and cons, those are just the big ones for me. When I juice, I always try to add as many “detox”
items as possible (kale, spinach, lemons, parsley, cucumber, cilantro, etc) I
love trying new juicing recipes, but here are a few of my favorites!

The above recipes I found
online. When I make my juice, I generally just
throw whatever produce is in the fridge into the juicer (crazy style!). A rough
recipe for my favorite concoction is as follows: